Page "Battle of Tannenberg" Paragraph 2

Although the battle actually took place close to Allenstein ( Olsztyn ), General Erich Ludendorff's aide, Colonel Max Hoffmann, suggested naming it after Tannenberg, in the interest of Pan-German ideology, to counter the defeat of the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald ( Tannenberg ) in 1410 by the Poles, Lithuanians and Tatars.

As pointed out by Christopher Clark, the actual Tannenberg is some to the west, and there was no intrinsic reason — other than the historical battle and its emotive resonance in the narrative of German and Slavic nationalism — to give its name to the 1914 battle.